The main drivers within the Visual Alarm Devices sector of the Fire/Life safety industry revolve around the usual commercial factors of cost, device installation time, power consumption, and overall output performance characteristics. In this regard, there can be added installation costs associated with the installation and adjustment of the field of light emitted from alarm indicating visual output devices.
EN54-23 is a new European Standard supporting the manufacture and use of VAD's (Visual Alarm Devices) for or within an emergency evacuation system. Prior to the new standard, VAD type devices had no minimum or maximum output requirements that needed to be met. The new standard is in general for the European market a game changer for the evacuation industry. Now there are minimum light output requirements vs. the amount of power through a flashed pulse which are to be available from the evacuation system.
The new EN54:23 Standard requires manufacturers to develop visual beacons that are capable of delivering set values of light coverage volumes at controlled intensity parameters. To reduce power consumption the standard allows devices to save wasted light distribution and allows for orientated device installation.